Cybersecurity risk management is essential for protecting an organization’s digital assets, with C-Level-related assets being some of the most critical.
What is Cybersecurity Risk Management?
Cybersecurity risk management is an essential component of any information security strategy. It is an ongoing process that identifies, assesses, and mitigates the risks associated with digital threats to protect and preserve data integrity, confidentiality, and availability.
Firstly, risk management in cybersecurity involves identifying risks. This includes identifying valuable assets, such as customer databases, C-Level data, or intellectual property, and potential threats to these assets. These can be internal, such as misuse or neglect, or external, such as hackers or other types of malware.
Once identified, the risks must be assessed. This process consists of determining the probability of a threat materializing and its impact on the organization.
Risk assessment helps organizations prioritize their information security efforts.
One objective of risk management is risk mitigation. This involves implementing controls to reduce the likelihood or impact of a threat.
Controls can be preventive, such as firewalls and antivirus programs, reactive, such as incident response plans, or proactive, to detect and defeat them before they materialize.
It is very important that risk management is constantly reviewed and updated to align it with the organization’s real situation and the evolution of threats.
Cybersecurity Risk Management Process
As steps in the cybersecurity risk management process we find:
Risk Framework
The risk framework provides a systematic structure for identifying, assessing, managing, and monitoring cybersecurity risks in an organization.
The first step in the risk framework is asset identification. This involves identifying information systems and data that could be targets of cyberattacks, such as customer databases, email systems, web servers, etc.
Next, risks must be identified. Potential threats to these assets, such as phishing attacks, malware, or human error, and vulnerabilities that these threats could exploit are identified.
Once the risks are identified, a risk assessment is conducted. This involves determining the likelihood of a threat materializing and its impact on the organization.
Risk assessment helps organizations prioritize their information security efforts.
The next step is cybersecurity risk management. This involves deciding how to manage each identified risk.
Finally, the risk framework involves constant risk monitoring. This ensures that the organization is aware of any changes in the threat landscape and can adjust its risk management accordingly.
This process is iterative and must be an integral part of an organization’s operations to ensure effective management of cybersecurity risks.
Risk assessment
Risk assessment is the process of determining the magnitude of existing risks related to information security. It determines the probability and impact of the identified threats on information systems.
The risk assessment process typically follows these steps:
- Risk analysis. This analysis determines assets’ vulnerability to these threats and the potential impact that a successful attack could have. An asset’s vulnerability can be high if it is easily exploitable and does not have sufficient security measures. The impact refers to the negative consequences that an attack could have.
- Determination of probability and impact. The likelihood of each threat materializing and its effect on the organization if it does is evaluated.
- Risk prioritization. Based on likelihood and impact, risks are prioritized to determine which require immediate attention and which can be accepted or mitigated later.
Risk treatment
Risk treatment is implementing measures to address the risks identified during the risk assessment.
The risk treatment process generally follows these steps:
- Evaluation of options. Different strategies to treat each risk are evaluated.
- Accepting risk involves acknowledging the risk, but deciding not to take immediate action. This may be appropriate for low-impact risks or when the cost of mitigation outweighs the potential benefit.
- Risk mitigation involves implementing technical or administrative controls to reduce the likelihood or impact of risk.
- Transferring risk involves passing the risk to another entity, such as an insurance company.
- Risk avoidance is about changing business processes to completely eliminate risk.
- Development and implementation of controls. Controls are developed and implemented to manage cybersecurity risks. They can be preventive (to prevent a risk from occurring), detection (to identify when a risk occurs), or response (to manage a risk after it has occurred).
- Monitoring and review. Controls are regularly monitored and reviewed to ensure their effectiveness. If a control is not effective, it may need to be adjusted or replaced.
Monitoring and review
Monitoring and review are processes that ensure the effectiveness of the security measures in place and the organization’s readiness for emerging threats.
The monitoring and review process typically follows these steps:
- Continuous monitoring Risks and the controls in place to manage them are constantly monitored. This may involve conducting security audits, penetration testing, log analysis, etc.
- Evaluation of the effectiveness of controls. The effectiveness of the controls implemented is regularly evaluated. If a control is not practical, it is adjusted or replaced.
- Identification of new risks. As the threat environment changes and the organization evolves, new risks can emerge. These risks must be identified and assessed.
- Review of the cybersecurity risk management framework. The risk management framework is regularly reviewed to ensure it remains relevant and effective as threats and organizational needs change.
Human Risk Management for C-Levels
Human risk management is critical to protecting C-levels in organizations. Due to their access to sensitive information, C-levels, such as CEOs and CTOs, are often targets of cyberattacks. Therefore, it is crucial for organizations to implement measures to protect board members.
The first step is to foster a culture of cybersecurity. C-levels must lead by example, receive specific training, and demonstrate a commitment to cybersecurity in their daily actions.
Security policies are another essential component. These policies should be designed with the special relevance of C-level-related assets to the organization’s security in mind.
Access management is also critical to protecting C-levels, as they have access to highly sensitive information. This involves using two-factor authentication, limiting access based on the principle of least privilege, and regularly reviewing access rights.
Specific protection for C-Levels
Cyber protection is crucial for any organization but especially relevant for C-levels. These senior executives are responsible for making strategic decisions and, therefore, have access to sensitive information and critical assets that can make them attractive targets for cybercriminals.
For this reason, C-levels face specific cyber threats, such as targeted phishing, and their protection must also be specific.
Cybercrime’s use of new technologies, such as AI or machine learning, forces organizations to shift the focus of cybersecurity strategies and incorporate these new technologies into them to stay one step ahead of cyberattacks, when it comes to protecting their C-Levels.
Asset monitoring related to C-levels has become a necessity for organizations. This practice involves continuous monitoring of the places and repositories where cybercriminals look for information that allows them to design attacks to detect any suspicious or unauthorized activity related to the assets of the C-levels.
In addition, detecting breaches and exposures of C-level-related information and data is another essential component of cyber protection. Cybercriminals often seek to access this confidential information to use it as a basis for a cyberattack on the organization and to use it directly to carry out other illicit purposes that can indirectly impact the organization.
New technologies allow this specific protection for C-Levels based on monitoring and detection to be automated, continuous, and real-time. In addition, AI and machine learning empower next-generation cyber-surveillance solutions to refine search results.
Improve the cybersecurity risk management of your C-Levels with Kartos by Enthec
Kartos Corporate Threat Watchbots, the Cyber Intelligence and Cybersecurity platform developed by Enthec, allows the organization to monitor beyond its IT perimeter to locate leaked and exposed C-level-related assets, open security breaches, and exposed vulnerabilities.
Thanks to Kartos, organizations can expand their cybersecurity strategy, providing specific protection for their C-Levels and digital assets.